Only in Japan

It appears, at first glance, to be the only country in the world that actually has fewer McDonald’s restaurants than it did 5 years ago.

Here’s an interactive map from the Guardian, which compares data in 2007 and 2012. According to this map, Japan is gradually getting rid of its Golden Arches: going from 3,746 to 3,249 in 5 years. Wikipedia has the current number (2013 data) at an even lower 3,164 shops.

Okay, I take that back. I did find one other country that has slightly fewer McD’s: Sweden. China, on the other hand, has doubled it’s number of shops to 1,705 in 2012 (and “2,000+” in May 2014, according to the same Wikipedia page). That’s still fewer than the number in Japan, which is still second only to the U.S. in the total number of McDonald’s.

The Guardian page has some other interesting data, about McD/obesity correlation, for example.